


Sophie, Or The Woman Who Spoke Too Much

by Radiolaria



Series: Meta Essays [16]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived From onaperduamedee Blog, Etymology, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Gen, Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, Identity, Literary References & Allusions, Meta Essay, Mutilation, Nonfiction, Period-Typical Sexism, Rape, Spoilers for Sophie's name, because mythology is full of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 17:53:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16999800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radiolaria/pseuds/Radiolaria
Summary: A meta about Sophie's former and chosen names.





	Sophie, Or The Woman Who Spoke Too Much

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on Jul. 21, 2018 on [onaperduamedee](https://onaperduamedee.tumblr.com/post/175088332393/talk-to-me-about-sophies-real-name) as an answer to a question about Sophie's name.

In  _The Long Goodbye Job_ , Sophie is given a real name at last: Lara.

If we go just by the origin, Lara is a diminutive of the Greek and Russian name, Larisa/Larissa, but both nicknames have a rich history in western culture.

In Roman mythology Lara/Lala was a nymph of the Almo River, named after her greatest flaw: she was talkative (from Ancient Greek  _lalein_  to prattle, to chat).

Jupiter set his eyes on the nymph Juturna, one of Lara’s sisters, and requested the cooperation of all Latium’s nymphs to capture her. Lara would not have it and not only warned Jupiter’s victim Juturna of his plan, but also his wife Juno. Jupiter ripped off her tongue as punishment and sent her off to Hell, escorted by Mercury, herald of Jupiter and among other things god of travelers, thieves and diplomats… Mercury raped her on the way down and the children born by her, the Lares, became domestic deities guarding homes and cities. In the underworld, she was known as  _Tacita_ or _Muta_ , a goddess of both gossips and silence (by extension, of death).

Which means Sophie’s real name literally means “blah blah”, after a woman whose tongue was her downfall.

She was punished for trying to warn her sisters and the cuckolded woman, and had her tongue severed by the very men who gained the most from her silence: Jupiter, whose plans were divulged, and Mercury, whom she could not reject when he forced himself on her. The text is rather clear about Lara being raped: mute, she could not express her refusal.

> _‘vim parat hic, voltu pro verbis illa precatur,_
> 
> _et frustra muto nititur ore loqui‘ (Ovid, Fasti, book  ii, v.613-614)_

“He takes her by force, and she pleads, her eyes replacing her words,

and fights to speak through her dead mouth, in vain.” (quick translation mine, because ugh, I miss Latin, also errrrr, what is James G. Frazer’s translation?)

After what is already presented as punishment, she is literally sentenced to death, walked there with a guard. Her new name comes from her sentence,  _Muta_ , as a reminder of what good women should be. Interestingly, the double sentence underlines the continuity between life and death and the idea that silence is death: silencing Lara was as good as killing her.

> _‘duc hanc ad manes; locus ille silentibus aptus._
> 
> _nympha, sed infernae nympha paludis erit.’ (id., v.609-610)_

“Lead her to the underworld, this place is fit for the mutes.

Nymph of the rivers, she will be a nymph of inferno.”

Yet in death, she becomes a death  _goddess_ , honoured and remembered by mortals, rather than a nymph, minor goddess of streams and ponds. Jupiter involuntarily grants her immortality in stories and cults by punishing her, which is a fine example of how Greek mythology repeatedly punished women, presenting their actions, often defensive (cf. Medusa, Cassandra), as bad behaviour that would question men’s supremacy, yet still talked about them at length. Their ego is their greatest weakness.

So Lara was kind of a badass in a very sexist time, a woman who said no to Gods, twice, even after it cost her speech and freedom.

How cunning it is to choose for Sophie’s original name one belonging to a character who  _knew_ but talked too much, when her present name only embraces knowledge, both as science and experience:  _sophía_  means wisdom. Sophie as we know her is skilled enough to navigate without getting caught a society which profits from women and their silence; probably because she never kisses and tells. But she talks a lot; her tongue is her tool, when she lies.

John Rogers referred to her in  _The White Rabbit Job_  commentary as Loki. She flatters the people she wants to exploit and meticulously gaslights the ones she wants destroyed; Sophie  _knows_  going head first against the system is dangerous, a lesson Lara learned through pain and death. Lying is a question of self-preservation for women and no story tells it better than Lara’s.

Rather than interpreting this choice of real name as an indication of hardships in Sophie’s childhood, I absolutely accept it as an acknowledgment of Sophie’s immense power with words,  _because she is a woman_. The show does not often recognize the risks Sophie takes as a woman in a society that crucifies women who are caught lying; her real name does. That’s why it is such a show of confidence to the crew on her part, if we put aside the love for her team and acceptance of her past self it implies: her real name is not a tool that could break her, but it is a cautionary tale about what could happen if she were not as good as she is.

Another detail that is also wonderful about Sophie’s real name is its popularity at the time: Doctor Zhivago, a classic novel by Boris Pasternak, smuggled out of the USSR and published in Russian in 1957, was translated in English in 1958 to become a best-seller worldwide, although it was banned in the USSR. The tale of Yuri Zhivago’s life, a poet and a physician caught in the storm of the Revolution and civil war, crosses path with that of the beautiful and indomitable Lara Guichard, his great love. David Lean adapted it for the silver screen in 1965, with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in the lovers’ role, painting a lavish, sweeping and tragic romance, rather than a reflection on the post-revolutionary USSR, but it became a hit, the 8th highest grossing film in Northern America and worldwide, and received no less than five Academy Awards.

Sophie’s birth date could be approximated between 1966 and 1969, and according to the popularity graphs of the name, the name reached a peak in the years following the movie’s diffusion. There is no canon indication on where Sophie was born, but it stands to reason the movie was distributed in several countries after 1965 and many little girls where the movie was released would have been named after the romantic heroine. It seems little Lara was no exception and Gina Bellman, who came up with the name, was bloody brilliant for picking it.

Lara is the epitome of the tragic heroine (and she is undeniably the major female character of the story), abused by a man in her youth, pursued for her marriage with a General and haunting the protagonist, but surviving through chaos and wars, a figure of feminine strength until the bitter end; she was governess, a nurse during the First World War, a General’s wife. Sophie’s parents were probably fans of the movie or the book; at least had a very romantic soul, which is fitting. Lara is a fascinating character, hauntingly beautiful and tragic, caught in the wheels of history, a striking role for an actress and probably the most well-known of Julie Christie’s career.

But Boris Pasternak said that Lara existed: she was his friend and lover of 14 years, Olga Ivinskaya, an editor and writer he met in 1946 while Doctor Zhivago was still in progress. Essential to his work, muse and secretary, literary agent and lover according to some biographers, she was also sent to labour camps for her connection with the writer and after his death had her name sullied in the media for the same reason. Pasternak’s family did their best to paint her as an unsavory character of no importance in his life for a long time, as Boris Pasternak was married for the duration of the affair.

The woman who can’t be shown because of the way she lives her life, invisible and muted, yet immortalized by fiction, a tool of revenge and punishment for men, this time in a political game, a muse and editor, Olga Ivinskaya seemed even more extraordinary than her fictional counterpart, even more mysterious as well, even if the mystery is legitimate in existing as it touches the personal. The personal is political and talking about Olga means recognizing her importance to the writer and the masterpiece left behind. A narrative was crafted around her to use and exclude her, yet she remained and kept her voice, publishing her memoirs in 1978. Women insisting on talking when they shouldn’t, really… Why couldn’t she remain the beautiful Lara Guichard of the books? 

Again, I don’t think it is indicative of a tragic past for Sophie, but it works as a reminder that women are two-faced: they wear the story told about them and the story they tell. Lara, despite being Sophie’s birth name, was/became a story others told about her; Sophie and Annie and Indira are all stories she tells about herself. Which means they are Sophie. However interesting or tragic or beautiful Lara’s story was, it isn’t Sophie’s anymore which is why it’s not that important to know about Lara in details. And it’s such an in-character choice for John Rogers, the show’s creator, who firmly believes backstory is a character’s worst enemy. Of course, it is interesting to know that  _there is_  a Lara to go with Olga, but one is a story and the other a person, and you can’t merely explain one by knowing the other (also first rule of analysis: biographical reading of a work belongs in the trashcan). Even if the story can inform you on how one person reads another person…

In Sophie’s case, she is both the writer and the story.

And the crew doesn’t need to know about Lara’s story; they just need to know Sophie trusts them enough to tell them there is another story. Which is huge for a character like Sophie who  _is_  her masks for as long as she wears them.

So, yes, Lara is a freaking brilliant name for Sophie’s real name. It’s so captivating to find the same duality of fiction/reality, systemic oppression and misogyny, immortality through fiction despite the cost, in Lara/Olga’s and the nymph’s stories. 

So thank you for giving me the opportunity to blabber about it!

 

**Sources and further reading:**

_Ovid and Lara:_

<http://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidFasti2.html>

<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0547%3Abook%3D2>

_Greek dictionary:_

[http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/efts/dicos/woodhouse_test.pl?keyword=^Chatter,%20v.%20intrans.](http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/efts/dicos/woodhouse_test.pl?keyword=%5EChatter,%20v.%20intrans.)

<http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/pollux/>

_Doctor Zhivago:_

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Zhivago_(novel)>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Zhivago_(film)>

_Olga Ivinskaya:_

<https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/the-true-story-of-dr-zhivagos-lara/>

<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-olga-ivinskaya-1600834.html>

<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/my-great-uncles-lover-was-the-inspiration-for-lara-in-doctor-zhi/>

_John Rogers and backstory:_

<http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/04/writing-jargon-preservation-4.html>

<http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/03/writing-adaptation-pt-4.html>


End file.
